Exploiting BPO prospects in IT sector

It is high time for Bangladesh to make concerted efforts for tapping the potential of business process outsourcing (BPO). This form of outsourcing involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business function (or processes) to a third-party service-provider. Originally, this was associated with large manufacturing firms, in the developed countries in particular. Such companies outsourced large segments of their supply chain. In the contemporary context, BPO is increasingly being used to outsource the services that can be done through the use of Information technology (IT). For this reason, some people do call it as ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services). Some credible forecasts by a number of international investment consultancy firms have been indicating that the global BPO business would amount to US$ 200 billion within the next three to four years. India here is likely to continue its position on the front line. China, the Philippines, and Malaysia are expected to follow India. But Bangladesh still seems to be nowhere. The policy-planners here do hardly understand the importance of BPO in today's globalised economy. Hence, efforts are conspicuous by absence to exploit its potential in a real sense. Some relevant quarters have, however, been suggesting that if Bangladesh could have fixed a realistic target of grabbing 1.0 per cent of the total global marketshare in this field, then it would have by now experienced a large boost in its foreign exchange earnings. This sector, as they do rightly note, is much lucrative compared to other sectors as most of the earnings from this service will reside in our country. We are least prepared for taking even a modest slice of this vastly- expanding and lucrative sector. Currently, Bangladesh is otherwise noted for doing software development outsourcing on a very limited scale. Reportedly, a few foreign investors have come forward with proposals to open, or have already opened, directly or with joint collaboration, local offices here. Some local programmers have been recruited in the sector with attractive compensation packages. Until now, the track record of Bangladesh -- a modest one, though -- has not been a bad one. It has been observed that Bangladeshi programmers are good at problem-solving. And software development cost is also low here compared to other countries. Graphic design and animation can also be cited here as two promising areas in the BPO sector. This should be added to the BPO basket under a comprehensive set of public policy supports for its overall growth on a sustained basis. Some random information suggests that the development of a five-minute animation in Bangladesh costs one-fifth of that than in our neighbouring country. This cost advantage factor should be taken into consideration by the policy-makers in Bangladesh to put into action a set of pro-active and business-friendly measures for the promotion of BPOs, particularly in the IT sector. BPO, on the surface, appears to be very much technology driven. But this highly potential sector does, in reality, requires only about 10 per cent of technical expertise. More then 50 per cent of the work involved has to do with having international marketing expertise. The rest of the work is dependent on the ability to execute the contract. Bangladesh has, otherwise, got enough manpower. What we have to do now is to train and prepare this manpower to serve the customers.